


Silence is the Most Powerful Scream

by Sinedra



Category: At Dead Of Night (Video Game)
Genre: Character Death, Emotional Hurt, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Ghosts, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Only Vaguely Implied Relationships, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Other Ghosts Mentioned but Not Seen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinedra/pseuds/Sinedra
Summary: Out of all the tragic hauntings in Sea View Hotel, there's one ghost who won't speak to Maya. These are her run ins with the silent spirit during her night from hell.
Relationships: Jimmy Hall | Hugo Punch & Original Character, Jimmy Hall | Hugo Punch/Original Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Silence is the Most Powerful Scream

**Author's Note:**

> This is a throw away idea for the fic I'm working on. I liked it too much to completely ditch it, so I wrote this during some down time. Enjoy!

Out of all the ghosts at the Sea View Hotel, she’s the only one who doesn’t speak. Or won’t, Maya thinks. She’s the only entity that won’t share her past; the only one who doesn’t actively move. Maya would love to have time to speculate the “why”, but, unfortunately, she doesn’t have time to sit and deliberate. She is being hunted after all.

After Amy, this solemn woman is the second ghost she spots. There she stood, head hung, in front of the out-of-order lift on the second floor. The first time Maya exits on that floor, she is met with a shocked stare; the lights flicker, the shadowed silhouette evanesces into the dark. Now, Maya can catch glimpses of her whenever she rounds the corner for the lifts. A snapshot of immutable perpetuity: auburn hair forever in a messy bun, a wrinkled shirt that would never be ironed, faded jeans, bare feet tapping anxiously.

* * *

**“Grace Foster, Come see her stunning debut as she sings arias, musical favorites, and best seller hits!”**

Only after she finds the flyer for her act does she possess her name. So, after locking Jimmy in a room, she sprints to the lift and pulls out the spirit box. “Hello?” There’s the faint outline of the woman in her peripheral, heavy static spills from the speaker, but no answer ever comes. She takes a chance. “Are you Grace? Did you sing here at the hotel?” Maya doesn’t know what to expect, the other ghosts are ignorant of her, but she does not anticipate what happens next: the box cuts off with a harsh whine and a loud clang causes her to flinch. The responding holler from down the hall has her racing to the stairwell and away.

* * *

It would take another hour before Grace shows herself again. Amy and Dr. Bose have spoken all they are willing, Harvey is leading her on a bloody chase, but – out of nowhere – she catches Maya as she’s fleeing to the lifts, again, on the first floor. An image so fleeting a phantasm, it takes Grace appearing a second time, across the room, to set in that she’s finally moved. Maya has scarcely enough time to turn on the spirit box after hitting the button for the ground level, just catching a faint “223” before she’s out of range.

* * *

Only after she’s met Rose does the first – and only vision – of Grace happen. She’s on the second floor again, when a frantic Grace runs down the hall. She’s been crying, Maya catches the red eyes and splotched cheeks, but she’s determined. She’s fled down the hall barefoot, her shoes changing hands as the hits the button to call the lift. Around her wrist is the strap to a too small bag; the sleeve of a jumper is sticking out and it takes no detective to see it’s been hastily packed. Her head turns to look down the hallway she just came from. Maya doesn’t need to be told: she’s looking for Jimmy.

An imperceptible sound has Grace whirling back around, slamming the button another two, three times. Shaking her head with broken murmurs of “I’m sorry” and “I can’t, I can’t” being the only audible words she’s ever heard the woman say. Why show this and not something else? A moment of singing, her arrival to Sea View, her grievances perhaps? Things more telling of who she had been; something revealing about her character, her person. In this, Grace is already a woman broken.

Watching has given her a horrible gut feeling, the same she got from watching Dr. Bose’s suicide. It’s a nauseating sensation that Maya has attributed to tragedy.

Somethings startles Grace. She turns just as the lift arrives; dropping her shoes, eyes glued to the hallway. There is no way she can see that, despite the doors being open, the lift isn’t actually there. It’s a dark, empty tunnel with cables and nothing else. Maya desperately wants to scream as Grace takes a fatal step back into the void… but it’s already far too late. She doesn’t even scream as she falls. Maya only registers confusion, then shock, before she is gone.

Unlike with Amy, she hears the actual impact, the sickening crunch mixed with a metallic bang, and can only stand there. She’s too stunned to move; she cannot bring herself to look over the edge to confirm her demise. 

Something about this quiet woman hits Maya, just like Amy. A deep, overwhelming despondency to yet another pointless death. It is a comfort to realize that she hasn’t become desensitized to it yet.

Only when she catches Jimmy ducking behind a wall does she realize she’s stood there too long. Time to move again; perhaps she could trick him back into a room.

* * *

Rose is actually quite forthcoming with information on Grace. Maya hasn’t seen the ghost again, no static near the lifts, zero knocking, so it’s satisfying to get some answers. “I hired her when the hotel was on the rise again,” Rose begins once she is safe behind a deadlocked door, “I thought variety would be good, and she had such a bright personality. It didn’t last. In the end, I damned her here.”

“What do you mean?” Static follows. “Rose, what did you mean when you said you damned her?”

“I was selfish, I thought she could help us. Help him.”

“Jimmy?”

Silence, then, “Yes. They got along surprisingly well, at least, while things were good. They bonded over their acts and, at least I hoped, they had become close. I believed that if she stayed then things would remain that way, but I didn’t understand.” There is a loud noise through the static: a sigh. “I was so very wrong. I encouraged her to stay even when I could see how unhappy she had become. Her death is on my head. I should have made her leave, instead all I could think about was my son.”

“Why won’t she speak?”

“I don’t know.” Of course, that answer is frustratingly familiar. “She stopped singing before my death, perhaps it’s related.”

“She stopped?”

“Told me she was canceling her act. I tried to change her mind, but she would not hear it.”

“Why did she run?”

“I don’t know.”

Rose’s presence fades shortly after, forcing Maya to track the ghost once more. There were still questions about Jimmy and some vague inquiries about Hugo she needs elaborated. The few answers on Grace didn’t necessarily make up for the wasted time.

* * *

Grace makes herself known for the last time, of course, while the night is at its worst. 

Hannah is cowering at her side, stuck in the room as Jimmy (or perhaps it was truly Hugo) stalks them. He is making laps through the hall they are in; undeniably aware of where they are. Maya fears she’ll have to become a distraction, to run so that Hannah might be able to get away; resigning herself to this sacrifice when a loud noise breaks the tense silence.

It is the spirit box, at least it was the only thing that comes to mind as she had abandoned it in the lift, making noise. Had she left it on in her haste? Was the lift open? A beautiful, haunting voice echoes through the floor, distorted by static, in a sad ballad. So, this was Grace? It is a powerful voice even in its sadness. The two girls are not the only ones affected by it.

“You’ll respond now?!” Her hunter snarls. Giving a feral yell, he stomps back down the hall. “After all these years, your pitiful silence, you pick now?!”

“What do we do?” Hannah whispers, barely holding it together.

“We have to wait.” He was heading toward the lift; it would be disastrous to try and- The singing stops. “Come on Grace,” she pleads, “please. Please.” It’s only Hannah left, too close for Maya to just fail. It couldn’t end like this!

“Jimmy? Jimmy, where are you?” It was as loud as the spirit could get without using the box, moving down a hallway opposite of their location. “Jimmy, I’m here. I’m still here. I’m not going to leave you.” The hush this time is deafening; no footsteps, no taunting, no doors or creaking floorboards.

A dark laugh cuts through the quiet. “Trying to help out, Grace? Trying to save Maya by luring me away?” It is closer than it should have been. “I won’t fall for it. You hear me?!” The sudden yelling has Hannah shaking, she flinches from the intensity of it and hides against Maya’s back. “I’m too smart for such simple-minded tricks. You’ll never leave, Grace, you can’t!” The stairwell door slams open with – what sounds like – frantic footsteps. More follow, giving chase. “Maya!!”

The way is finally clear. “Go,” she whispers harshly to her friend, “straight to the lifts and out of the hotel. Now.”

Hannah doesn’t need to be told twice. Maya follows behind, hoping to join her, but an enraged growl forces her to hide in another room; Hannah has called the lift already. It is a tense several seconds as Maya knows that Jimmy could get there before the doors shut. Ear to the keyhole, she listens, nearly smiling as she catches Jimmy raging and banging against the departed lift. Eventually giving up to storm the empty halls. No longer certain of where she is.

It is a very slow, cautious process to get to the lift for the last time. Grace stands there, the doors already open for Maya, looking much as she did before death. There is no smile, no more words, just a soft nod a she watches with finality as this horrible chapter closes.

Maya, admittedly, isn’t thinking of the ghosts as she emerges into the dawn, it’s first of relief. A profound feeling that nearly cripples her; nearly bringing her to her knees to confront the horror she experienced and how fortunate she is to escape. She doesn’t have time for that, she has to find her friends. They’re all waiting for her just down the road. They make one hell of a group as they arrive in the nearest town – all barefoot and unkempt – as they head into the police station. It’s then, waiting to give her statement, that she remembers the ghosts. Particularly, the woman who only spoke to save them. Did they find peace? Could they?

Years from now, after she’s graduated from university and spoken with a therapist extensively, Maya would find the grave of Ms. Grace Foster. It would be a small, unassuming headstone; merely the dates and a generic “Beloved Daughter & Sister”. It’s not maintained the best, nor has any recent flowers. Maya would get her some, she would do the same for the other ghosts she could find, but Grace would be the first. Standing there, Maya would think she could hear music in the distance, but it would fade with the wind as the young woman finds a way to leave the dead. It’s time to keep living.


End file.
